Four of us camped up on the Vallee Blanche. And naturally one of my buddies heading down took one of my DMM Flies rather than his walking axe. Seconded with one technical and a Petzl walking axe leashed with a sling. Tired when I got to the top!

When its crowded, not fun, especially when abseiling, lots of and lots of stuff comes falling down. Got a lovely bruise on my leg at one belay point from a massive chunk of ice. Glad I brought a helmet!

4 teams on the route but very well protected and great conditions. Even did it in guidebook time! Good practice for the icy bits on the Frendo which we did the following week. Short hop back to our tent in the Vallee Blanche.

Climbed with one other party on the route, which got crowded until we got well above them. Great ice countered poor visibility. Spindrift pouring down the route constantly made me glad I decided on a third layer. We were thinking of climbing to the summit of Mount Blanc du Tacul, but the weather didn't seem promising and the big slope looked pretty bad, so we rapped off and called it a day.

we climbed the route on a rope of two people swinging lead at each pitch, I led the steepest pitch, i think it is the 4th but it was in my opinion a WI 3+ more than a 4.
We topped Mont Blanc du Tacul just because it was still early, on the descent through the normal route we saw a small serac fall, probably a worning of the major disaster that happened this summer...

First clear day in a long period of snowfall. We even had to make a track to the foot of this normally, extremely popular route! We climbed most of it simultaniously until the start of the real difficulties. These are climbed in two long steep pitches. We had to rappel down because of avalanche danger on the normal rout. It's more like a sporty winter crack but just a litlle bit higher.

Superb route, but in leanish condition at this time. Could see the winter bolts and tat two or three meters above us. Would echo the words above about climbers above you, but finding it clear would need an early start. Not sure of the exact date we did it, but it was the day the Tacul ordinary route avalanched. Rather glad we decided not to top out!

...it again, this time swinging leads with Patagonia Thomas. I led the crux pitch, yeah! I echo Jeroen's sentiments about being careful of other climbers. It's a very popular route. Be the first and go quick otherwise expect ice and rockfall.

When we climbed the couloir there was one other party in the route. I wouldn't do it a second time with other climbers in the same route. I got hit by falling ice on the left arm and one of the other climbers got hit on the nose. Other than that, a very nice introduction to steep ice!